Handicapped-access Door Pads Have Been Installed at the South End Library, Easing Access for All

Better handicapped-accessibility at the South End library

Thanks to donations by library supporters and a PruPAC grant collected by FOSEL, opening the doors at the South End branch is now as easy as a tapping on a door pad. No more acrobatics by parents trying to hustle strollers, shopping bags and other youngsters through the entryway all at the same time. No more children tugging at the heavy door to be let in when a stiff wind blowing in from Tremont Street tries to keep them out. Whether you're in a wheelchair, leaning on a cane, or simply carrying too many books and DVDs under your arms to also open the library's door, your access into the branch has been greatly improved.

Head librarian, Anne Smart, told FOSEL she's making it her job to instruct everyone how to use the pads. There are three: one on the outside of the building, at the corner of Tremont, as illustrated in the picture where library user Francis Pugliese is pointing to it. The second pad is one the inside between the two glass doors, on the left when entering and the right when leaving. The third is on the inside, across from the staff counter. The South End Library is now one of only a few in the BPL's constellation of branches that is fully handicapped accessible. An elevator to its second floor was installed more than a decade ago, and its bathrooms are fully equipped for wheelchairs and strollers. The campaign for automatic doors was sponsored by FOSEL and its president, Glyn Polson. Thanks to the board, the generous contributors in the South End, and the grantors at Pru-PAC.

FOSEL Book Bags for Sale to Help Pay for Library Programming for Young, Old and In-betweens

In case you wondered what to buy your friends and relatives for holiday gifts, you can stop that right now. FOSEL has just received its order of beautiful, 100 percent cotton book bags, designed by our tireless and talented graphic-design volunteer, Mary Owens, as per the pictures alongside this text.

The totes have a color-accented bottom and an additional shoulder strap for easy carrying. The green tote features a logo that says, "The South End Library Rocks," as indeed it does. The red bag's logo consists of six sayings about libraries that should warm the heart of all patrons, as displayed above.

They will be available at FOSEL-sponsored events like The South End Writes, and can be ordered and picked up at the South End branch. FOSEL also offers payment through PayPal on the web site by clicking on DONATE. The cost per bag is $10. All proceeds will be used to fund programs for young and old at the library.

BPL President Amy Ryan Thanks FOSEL for Funds Raised to Pay for the Installation of a Handicapped-Accessible Door at the South End branch

FOSEL president Glyn Polson and Mayor Thomas Menino

The Friends of the South End Library (FOSEL) received a letter of thanks from the president of the BPL, Amy Ryan,  thanking the organization for its  check to pay for a handicapped-accessible door at the South End branch. Glyn Polson, the president of FOSEL, applied for a grant to pay for the door from Pru-PAC last and received a check a few weeks ago. PruPAC is a fund established by developers 25 years ago to benefit neighborhoods around the Prudential Center. The Prudential Project Advisory Committee, a city-formed group composed of neighborhood residents and business representatives, had awarded the grant earlier this year. . The Friends of the South End Library was among a dozen of downtown non-profits that collected a total of more than $210,000 from the PruPAC  fund recently.Once installed, the library will be one of a handful of BPL branches that is fully handicapped accessible. An elevator to the second-floor community room was added to the building in previous years. Polson is working closely with the BPL’s Facilities Department to complete the project as quickly as possible.

According to Christine Schonhart, director of branch libraries at the BPL,  electricians will meet with the contractor at the branch next week to review the door and set a schedule. "While we won’t have to close the branch to install the switch, there might be some disruption to the entrance for people to move around the workers," she wrote. Further details will be posted as soon as they come over the wire...

The BPD's Archivist Margaret Sullivan and her Colleague Dr. Kim L. Gaddy Shine a Light on the History of Boston's Fairest

After personnel files were put on microfilm at the Boston Police Department in the 1970s, a sergeant detective about to retire dumped a box of women's roster cards on the desk of another, Kim L. Gaddy, saying she didn't have the heart to shred them. "That's how it all started," Dr. Gaddy told a rapt audience at the South End Library on October 16, during the slide show of "Boston's Fairest." With Margaret Sullivan, the BPD's archives and records manager, Dr. Gaddy spent hundreds of hours at Radcliffe's library and the "dank basement" of the BPL, among other places, to document the history of Boston police women.

They only had to go back to the 1920s.  The time between the two world wars was one of  social change and the 1919 Boston Police Strike had decimated the department. It  consisted of "rookies and old men," said Sullivan. In 1921 the first six women who had been allowed to take the entry exam were appointed. They were denied uniforms, weapons, cars and handcuffs. But they had their badge. They'd show it, presumably bark "you're under arrest,"  and haul the perps to the police station by hailing a cab. More women were hired in the 1940s, including the first African-Americans, among them Dorothy "Harry" Harrison, the daughter of physician Columbus Harrison, who practiced from his home on Chandler Street. "Can you explain why these women were placed in the South End which was one of the most dangerous parts of Boston?" one member of the audience wanted to know. "Because they were good," said Sullivan, "and they knew the district very well."

The BPD remained largely the domain of men. But the perpetrators included women, as did of course the victims of crime. Handling female prostitutes or battered women caused discomfort among male law enforcement. The female recruits were expected to focus on women by protecting them from "mashers" (men who'd harass them) and bring home lost children. They did that --even bought kids ice cream on the beaches of South Boston-- but would land punches, if necessary, with the best of them.

Despite nine decades of proving their worth, the BPD’s percentage of female officers is still only 14 percent, roughly on par with the police departments elsewhere. “Police work has a very macho image but it is 85 percent social work, instead of knocking heads” said Dr. Gaddy, explaining part of the reason why women many not even see police work as suitable for them to this day. Answering another audience question, the speakers affirmed no specific efforts are underway by the BPD to demystify  what this profession is all about. "It's hard to get across why police work might appeal to college women" now looking to make career choices, agreed Sullivan. "It's not the only barrier," she said, referring to  other disincentives: jobs are not necessarily there right now, you have to be put 'on the list,' you have to live in Boston, there are several tests. "By the time you take care of that, most will have made other choices," she said.

The first African-American female olice officer, Dorothy Harris

A few years ago, Sullivan helped uncover the history of Boston's first  African-American officer in the BPD in 1878,  Sgt. Horatio J. Homer. She is currently working on the biographies of some twelve police officers (she calls them her "dirty dozen") who made difficult choices in their careers, including resigning when that was 'the right thing' to do. "It's hard to be a good cop sometimes," Sullivan said. One of her subjects is a former resident of Rutland Square, Captain Francis Wilson, whose father, Butler Wilson, a staunch Republican, helped start the Boston branch of the NAACP.

Mayor Menino Hands FOSEL a Pru-PAC Check to Pay for the Installation of a Handicapped-accessible Door at the South End Branch

menino:glyn

The Friends of the South End Library was among a dozen group of downtown non-profits that received a total of more than $210,000 from the PruPAC  fund, established 25 years ago by developers to benefit the neighborhoods around the Prudential Center.Glyn Polson, president of the South End library's Friends group, applied for the grant to help pay for the cost of  an automatic door at the  branch. Once installed, the library will be one of a handful of BPL branches that is fully handicapped accessible. The Prudential Project Advisory Committee (PruPAC), a city-formed group composed of neighborhood residents and business representatives, had awarded the grant earlier this year but not yet issued the check. Polson is working closely with the BPL's Facilities Department to complete the project as quickly as possible.

What Do the MA Board of Library Commissioners and the Legislature's Library Caucus Have to Do with the Boston Public Library? Answer: More Than You Think...

MA Statehouse

In 2008, when two powerful Beacon Hill legislators resigned as trustees of the Boston Public Library, Mayor Thomas Menino did not replace them with other state legislators. The former trustees,  then-Senate President William Bulger and Rep. Angelo Scaccia, had previously funneled tens of millions of capital and operational dollars annually into the BPL to, among other projects, restore the Copley Library.  After their resignation, in protest of Mayor Menino's refusal to renew the contract for then-BPL president Bernard Margolis, there were no BPL trustees around on Beacon Hill to protect state allocations to Boston's libraries. At a time of severe economic stress, the state's portion to Boston's library budget was reduced from $8.4 million in 2008 to $2.4 million in 2010. This came on top of  several years of harsh city budget cuts to the BPL, not opposed publicly at the time by the remaining BPL trustees. Still, in 2008 it was generally believed by Boston library patrons that their local branch would be open when they awoke the next morning. How could it not be? But in 2010, BPL's  trustees and its president Amy Ryan proposed closing ten of the 26 local libraries and Boston's state legislators had to step back into the BPL fray, spurred on by their otherwise peaceful constituents who had turned into enraged local library supporters. The 24-member Boston Delegation to the Legislature passed a 2011 budget amendment threatening to cut the state's $2.4 million contribution to the BPL unless the City of Boston, as they put it, "funds and maintains operations for all branch libraries in service as of January 1, 2010." As a result, all the BPL branches remained open, albeit with reduced staff, despite the economic downturn.

Rediscovered awareness of voters' support for libraries' is reflected in the growing number of  state legislators who have become members of the Library Legislative Caucus. Founded in 2008 by former State Rep. Mark Falzone (D-Saugus), the Caucus is now headed by Rep. Kate Hogan (D-Stow), a strong library advocate elected in 2009. In her Maiden Speech to the Legislature in 2010, she described her mother's apartment looking just like a branch of the local library, and her mother as "the best-read person she's ever met" thanks to he public library. "Aid to public libraries is local aid," Hogan told her colleagues." The Library Caucus membership among House and Senate members has nearly doubled  from the 40 it started out with since Hogan became its chair, according to Scott Kjellberg, Rep. Hogan's legislative aide.

"The Library Caucus is helpful," said Cynthia Roach, Head of Library Advisory and Development for the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. The MBLC works on state aid to libraries, mostly in an advisory capacity with minor enforcement power centered in its state-funded library-construction programs. When asked about public awareness of the state's role in libraries recently, Roach acknowledged "we're in much better shape now."

Among the Library Caucus's early supporters is South End Rep. Byron Rushing, also the Second Assistant Majority Leader in the Legislature. Appointed to the BPL Library Board by Mayor Menino in 2010, shortly after he publicly denounced the BPL's lack of advocacy at the Legislature, Rushing has begun to re-lubricate the rails between the Legislature and the BPL. In March of this year, Rushing helped bring together the BPL's trustees and executives with MBLC's director Robert Maier and Library Legislative Caucus Chair Hogan at the Copley Library for a breakfast meeting; a previous get-together had already taken place at the Legislature in November 2011.

In April, Rushing reported that  44 legislators signed up for BPL library cards at a State House library event, "part of the effort to inform my colleagues that any resident of Massachusetts can apply for a card in the BPL," Rushing said. Following a language change engineered in the fiscal 2012 state budget by Rep. Hogan, the newly formed Library for the Commonwealth (formerly the Library of Last Recourse) expanded services and allowed all state residents to be eligible for a BPL library card, according to Hogan’s office.

The improving relationship between the state and the BPL strengthens the hand of an additional player in city of Boston's library system which, in its trustee appointments and budget allocation, depends almost entirely on the good, or not so good, graces of  the mayor of Boston. When the 2012/2013 state budget was approved last month, operating money for libraries was increased "slightly" from the level-funding provided the previous year, said Roach, of the MBLC. A position for a second state library construction specialist has been fully funded this year (the MBLC plays an important role in the construction and renovation of Commonwealth libraries) and money for a program for the visually impaired, Talking Books,was increased by three percent to $2.4 million. In addition, said Roach, the MBLC hopes to convince Governor Deval Patrickto approve a new bond bill for $150 million worth of library construction during the 2012-2013 fiscal year, something that would benefit, among other projects, the East Boston Library, now in progress. A previous library bond bill, for $100 million, will cover only the costs of the first seven libraries on the to-be-constructed list.

At this point, The East Boston Library's number on the list is...14.

FOSEL Wins $8,000 Grant from PRUPac for Handicapped-accessible Door at South End Library

The Friends of the South End Library is pleased to report that our request for a grant from the Pru-PAC Community Benefits Committee has been approved!! This grant, combined with generous donations from private donors and library patrons will ensure that the handicapped-accessible door will be installed as soon as Pru-Pac's funds become available. A date for the disbursement of the grant funds has not been set.

FOSEL applied for a grant of $8,000 to fund a capital improvement project at the South End branch of the Boston Public Library, specifically the installation of an automated door to allow library patrons with physical disabilities, as well as the elderly patrons and parents with strollers, to access their community library. As you know, the current doorway consists of two separate heavy doors both of which must be opened by hand. With the installation of a handicapped-accessible door, the South End Library will be one of a handful of BPL branches to become fully ADA compliant, since the library already has an elevator to the second floor.

BPL did not allocate money to support this vital need in their capital budget but it did express strong support for FOSEL’s campaign to raise funds for this project. As this is a capital improvement project, BPL will have direct supervision over the installation of any handicapped- accessible entrance way and control over the bidding process and the selection of a contractor. However, we anticipate a swift completion upon distribution of the funds from PRUPac.

Prudential Center developers contribute money to the fund only when a building permit is issued. Following issuance of the permits for the Exeter Residences, $302,500 was contributed. The second project, at 888 Boylston Street is currently in a holding pattern. However, when the required permits are issued another $169,500 will be contributed to the fund. It is unclear at this time whether the South End Library funding will come from future or current funding.

Having identified a handicapped-accessible entrance to the library as a priority issue, FOSEL embarked on a private fundraising campaign to raise the necessary funds to have an automated entrance system installed. To date, we have raised over $6,000 from South End residents to accomplish our goal. The Pru-PAC committee took into account which projects which had secondary funding sources, so our neighbor's generous contributions were a vital component in the approval of FOSEL's grant request. Thank you all!!

Reminder: The Easter Bunny Will Visit Library Park Sunday, April 8, at 11:00 AM

The Easter Bunny will visit the Fifth Annual Easter Egg Hunt, sponsored by the Friends of the South End Library, Sunday, April 8, at 11:00 AM, right after the Egg Hunt in Ringgold Park sponsored by their Friends group, which starts at 10:00 AM. There will be refreshments, a separate area for tiny hunters, and police help crossing Tremont Street. Bring your own baskets, or use ours...Hope to see you there, on Tremont Street between Rutland Square and West Newton Street.

"New Busy-ness" Measure Is Not Meant to "Compare" Branch Performance But to Assess "Reach" of Library Services into Neighborhood, Says BPL's Spokeswoman Gina Perelli

A recent measure by BPL administrators to redefine what makes a branch "busy," the so-called "new Busy," is not meant to compare branch libraries competitively, according to Gina Perelli, the library's communications director. Perelli also said that the measure was "proposed" and "still looking for input" from library staff. "The idea is to capture the reach of library services into a community," she said, "to look at how many contacts the staff has with patrons as opposed to just the figure for ciculation." The "new Busy" calculation, published late February in the internal BPL Weekly, did not include a request for comment from library staff, and listed the three branches with the highest numbers consecutively. They were West End, West Roxbury and Mattapan.

A BPL's branch's circulation was one of the measures used in 2010 to determine which libraries should be closed and which remain open. The "saved" libraries, which tended to be larger, would have more resources and be open more hours. However, a number of to-be-closed libraries, while small, were convenient for users' access while larger ones were hard to reach by public transportation, or because patrons were elderly, handicapped, or too young to walk longer distances. Testimony during the library-closing hearings in 2010 suggested that patrons of East Boston's Orient Height branch, for example, one of the four on the closing list, would have had to traverse the tunnel to get to the next closest library in East Boston.

The "new Busy" calculation adds to each branch's circulation figure the number for visitors, programs and computer sessions. However, it doesn't take into account the number of hours a library is open, or the number of computers available for computer sessions. Had this number been adjusted for hours open, in a "new new Busy" configuration, the three "top-performing" branches would have been West End, Jamaica Plain and Mattapan. BPL's Perelli acknowledged the flaw during a phone conversation and pointed out that the definition of a program was not set either. "Circulation also depends on how large a collection is," she added, agreeing that there might still be "a lack in uniformity" in the numbers used to assess  either a branch's reach or its comparative popularity.

"We are still reframing ourselves as a result of the Compass hearings," said Perelli, referring to last year's numerous meetings to produce the BPL's long-term Compass Strategic Plan. "It is still an internal adjustment, informed by Compass to look more broadly at the community."

South End Library's Friends Looking for Your Financial Help to Fund Handicapped-Accessible Entry to the Branch--Please Donate

Preparing Envelopes

We are at the last stage of a massive mailing campaign -- envelopes are stuffed, address labels have been applied, postage stamps affixed. It was both easier and harder then we thought. My thumb is tired from, of all things, peeling labels and stamps off their sheets. Our return address stamp is not easily applied but when it is, looks great. Hope you have received one of these  (see photo) in your mailbox.  Make a donation by using our return envelope or clicking on the DONATE icon if you want to use PayPal.

Thanks.

Return Address Stamp

Fourth Annual Easter Egg Hunt at Library Park Sunday, April 24, 11 AM - 1 PM

The Easter Bunny's suit has been delivered to Easter Egg Hunt headquarters in the South End. The eggs are being filled with candy, poems, riddles and knock-knock jokes. The Easter baskets have been pulled from the closet. The Parks Department has its brooms ready to clean Library Park. Area D4 Police will assist street crossing, so all is about ready for the Fourth Annual Easter Egg Hunt at Library Park. As always, there will be a separate safe area for the littlest egg-hunters. Be there at 11:00 sharp on Sunday, April 24. See you there.....